When
the wave struck, their house, which was barely 50 meters from
the sea, was swept away together with Gunasana’s fishing
boat. Amazingly all six members of the family survived. They
sought refuge at a nearby Buddhist temple where they lived in
a tent for two months before being moved to a camp run by a
local NGO managed by the Belgian Consul in Sri Lanka, the ‘Solideal
Loadstar Rehabilitation Trust’ (SLRT). Here, they live
in a cramped but clean wooden hut.
Life has returned to a semblance of normality with Gunasana’s
two daughters attending school every day and his wife bringing
in a small income from embroidery jobs. But with no boat Gunasana
has had to resort to buying fish from the local fisherman to
make ends meet. Every morning he drives up and down the main
road next to the camp on his motorbike, selling to local households.
Situated a couple of kilometres north of the town of Weligama,
in the southern District of Matara, the temporary camp is home
to 248 survivors of the tsunami. Comprised of identical huts
squeezed into rows, the camp was built on a couple of hectares
of land provided by the government. Today, a delegation from
the Belgian Red Cross-Flanders, together with their counterparts
from the Sri Lanka Red Cross have arrived to lay the foundation
stones of the first permanent house to be built on the site.
The uncertainty about the future for families like Gunasana's
may soon be over. As the camp residents sit patiently, Peter
Ophoff, Country Coordinator for the Belgian RC-Flanders in Sri
Lanka and Birgit Vaes, construction delegate with the Belgian
Red Cross, step forward to light the ceremonial oil lamp. Buddhist
monks chant the Sethpirith, the ancient form of Buddhist blessing,
and at 10.58 am, deemed to be an auspicious time by the monks,
the foundation stones are set in concrete.
After the ceremony Peter and Birgit move off to discuss the
construction project with the camp residents. ‘It is important
that we involve people as much as possible in the construction
process and listen to their concerns’, explains Peter
who is a veteran of 12 years international Red Cross missions
in Africa and Asia. ‘What we learned today is that this
camp, which is home to people from four tsunami damaged villages,
has become very tight knit, people don’t want to be split
up. We are very conscious that we are not simply building houses,
we are building a community’.
After the tsunami the Government of Sri Lanka established a
100 meter buffer zone along the south coast of the country that
has now meant that land has to be found to build 34,000 new
houses for families like Gunasana’s who had to abandon
their homes within the buffer zone. The Belgian RC-Flanders
team relies upon the local government officials to provide a
list of families who will move into the completed houses. It
seems inevitable that some of the residents of the Weligama
camp will have to be housed elsewhere as there is only room
for 36 permanent homes on the site.
But before construction begins, the next step will be to temporarily
relocate the camp population to another nearby camp also run
by SLRT. Engineering consultants will then survey the site,
finalise the architectural plans and then one model house will
be built which should be completed by October. At the same time
work will also start on tendering for the contractors who will
be undertaking the building, which involves calculating the
volumes and cost of materials such as bricks, sand and timber.
This is Brigit’s first overseas mission with the Belgian
RC-Flanders, a very different challenge to her job back home
in Antwerp where she works as an architect on large scale projects
such as service apartments for the elderly, reconstruction of
hospitals and social housing. ‘It’s not the work
here that’s different, it is the environment, and things
tend to work slower. I thought it I would find it difficult
as a woman working in the construction world, but I’m
treated much the same as I am in Belgium’.
The Belgian RC-Flanders have budgeted four million Euros for
their relocation and construction program in Sri Lanka which
will expand to four other sites in Weligama and two sites south
of Matara town in Dikwella. As well as private housing, the
team will also be rebuilding the District Hospital in Weligama
and a dispensary in the village of Mirissa, a few kilometres
down the coast for a total of around 500,000 Euro. As part of
a Belgian Red Cross response the Belgian Red Cross Flemish section
provided 1,750,000 Euro to a construction programme managed
by the Belgian RC French section, who are building homes further
North in the coastal town of Beruwala and Kalutara.
It is now eight months since the tsunami struck, and reconstruction
is gathering pace. ‘For the first few months the focus
of the Red Cross was on providing emergency health services
shelter materials and household items to people who had lost
everything’, explains Peter. ‘We are reliant upon
the Government for the land to build on and when we received
the first sites in July, we were ready to move things on very
quickly’.
The Belgian RC-Flanders are aiming to build about 300 houses
which will form part of a wider reconstruction effort coordinated
by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies which is setting out to build up to 15,000 houses
for tsunami survivors.
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At
precisely 10.58 am, the foundation stones of the new houses
are laid in concrete.
Photo: Patrick Fuller/International Federation (p13231)
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The
wooden temporary shelters are cramped but clean.
Photo: Patrick Fuller/International Federation (p13232)
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Uncertainty
about the future for those living in temporary accommodation
will soon be over.
Photo: Patrick Fuller/International Federation (p13234)
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Peter
Ophoff from the Belgian Red Cross-Flanders knows that
consulting with local populations will result in better
permanent housing.
Photo: Patrick Fuller/International Federation (p13235)
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Families
living in temporary accommodation are grateful that reconstruction
projects are gathering pace.
Photo: Patrick Fuller/International Federation (p13237)
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